The West Valley basketball team played their best game so far this year when it mattered most. The #2 Vikings put together two complete halves of championship-caliber basketball in dismantling #10 Yuba 81-60 in a CCCAA NorCal title clash Saturday night. The victory sends West Valley (26-3) to the CCCAA Men's State Basketball Championship March 11-13 at West Hills Lemoore.

After trading baskets with the 49ers, who end their season 20-10, for the opening few minutes of the game, the Vikings hit four three-pointers in a row for what turned out to be an insurmountable 35-18 lead at the 4:07 mark. Mahmoud Fofana's bucket pushed the lead to 43-23 at halftime.

The Vikings grabbed their largest lead of the game at 70-40 on a Quinn Denker two with just over nine left in the game. Sufyan Elkannan scored the final eight points for the Vikings, setting off a home-court celebration culminating in a WVC traditional championship net-cutting.

Elkannan finished with a game-high 18 points, while Adam Afifi had 15 and Denker 14. Malik Patton had his best game of the year, canning 12 points, six in each half and all on offensive rebound putbacks. Afifi and Elkannan each drained a trio of treys, as the Vikings out-three'd the 49ers nine to three.

West Valley, the north's #2 seed, will open the CCCAA tournament against south #3 Citrus (23-6) Friday (3/11) at 3:00pm. Joining the Vikings from the north in Lemoore are #1 City College of San Francisco (29-1), #3 Las Positas (27-3) and #4 College of the Sequoias (26-4). In addition to Citrus, the south sends #1 West LA (27-3), #2 San Bernardino (25-5) and #4 MiraCosta (17-14).